Listen to narration by a local historian

Emily Morry

Historical Researcher, City of Rochester

Once considered “the best inn between Buffalo and Albany on the stagecoach line,” Richardson’s Canal House was a hundred years old when this photograph was taken in 1922.

Located at 1474 Marsh Road, the waterfront establishment named for early proprietors Elias and Gould Richardson, was built around 1822 to accommodate travelers and Erie Canal workers in the nineteenth century boomtown of Bushnell’s Basin.

Legend has it that when patrons were less than satisfied with the service at the public house, they raced their horses on the towpath, creating waves that flooded into the barroom. Some maintained that this was the only time the inn ever received a cleaning.

Though ownership changed hands several times during the 1800s, the building remained in the libations business for the better part of a century.

The last proprietor of the establishment during its time as a tavern, John Kassow, purchased the locale in 1897. Kassow renamed it the Exchange Hotel and found much success until Prohibition dried up the watering hole, forcing it to close.

Although it was no longer at risk of becoming a den of alcoholism, the building briefly succumbed to exhibitionism.

The hotel was converted into apartments in the 1920s and for some time it housed a nudist colony before a cadre of concerned citizens assured the unclothed collective that they were unwelcome in the area.

The residence maintained a roster of well-dressed tenants until the 1950s when the county health department ordered it closed for faulty plumbing. Completely abandoned by the 1960s, the former inn was slated for demolition the following decade.

The nineteenth century gem would have been destroyed to make room for an office and shopping complex were it not for the efforts of a collection of area denizens and members of the landmark society of Rochester, who recognized the building’s historical significance.

Newspaper owner and architecture buff, Andrew Wolfe, purchased the building in 1978 with the aim of restoring it and opening a restaurant. Wolfe’s wife, Vivienne Tellier, who would oversee the renovations and run the establishment admitted, “Andrew’s only vice is buildings.”

Thanks to Wolfe’s weakness for historic structures and Tellier’s culinary experience, Richardson’s Canal House was revived as a fine dining eatery on Valentine’s Day, 1979.

Focusing on French regional and American country cuisine, the Canal House quickly became a favorite spot for locals and attracted the attention of out-of-towner gourmands.

The eatery received accolades in publications such as the New York Times and Bon Appétit and was recognized as one of the best restaurants in North America by Travel-Holiday Magazine in 1985.

News of the restaurant’s rave reviews and charming setting traveled across the pond so Tellier had the menu translated into five different languages to better accommodate the international clientele.

Tellier sold the business in 2002 to Johann Mueller, the owner of Rooney’s, who further renovated the dining hall, but maintained the establishment’s level of culinary excellence.

Though nearly destroyed forty years ago, today Richardson’s Canal House is a recognized landmark on the National Register of Historic Places and remains the last surviving original inn on the Erie Canal.